They should spend from now until the end of the congressional calendar reading aloud from Thomas Sowell, Richard Epstein, John Lott and Milton Friedman and explaining why Obama’s high tax, massive regulation agenda spells doom for the nation.

Then some Republicans can say: We think this is a bad idea, but Obama won the election and the media are poised to blame us for whatever happens next, so let’s give his plan a whirl and see how the country likes it.

Republicans need to get absolute, 100 percent intellectual clarity on who bears responsibility for the next big recession. It is more important to win back the Senate in two years than it is to save the Democrats from their own idiotic tax plan. Unless Republicans give them an out, Democrats won’t be able to hide from what they’ve done.

Even Democrats might back away from that deal.

There is something to be said for Republicans raising the white flag, and saying, “you know what? Obama won, let’s give him what he wants” (barring the debt ceiling deal.) Don’t try to put a smiley face on it. Make clear that it’s a bad idea – we don’t endorse it. We won’t vote for it, (we’ll vote present, or better yet, walk out) but Obama won the election, so he can have his tax increase which won’t do anything but harm the economy further. The American people have spoken, and this is what they wanted, so this can be what they get.

Like Ann said, make it absolutely clear that this is no “grand bargain”. This is no “compromise”. Republicans should tell the public, “we’re giving the President what he wants not because it’s the best thing to do. Indeed, we can’t think of anything worse than raising taxes on job creators during a sluggish economy (and the President once said he agreed with us on that.) We are giving Obama what he wants so the majority of the American people who voted for him can find out once and for all, what happens when his ruinous left wing policies are allowed to pass. It won’t be pretty, but we Republicans are now, before you, washing our hands of it, like Pontius Pilate did before the mob in Jerusalem.

The responsibility of our ensuing economic wreckage will unambiguously be on the Obamacrats – and the dupes who voted for them.